Myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation.

-- philosopher/author Joseph Campbell

Chances are the name Baldur doesn't mean much to you. But very soon it might. Baldur, a curious and little known god of Norse pagan religion, could soon make a big difference to St. Catharines.

If Silicon Knights president Denis Dyack has his way, Baldur, the hero of the company's new video game, Too Human, will do nothing less than change the Garden City.

In mythology, Baldur is the second son of the supreme god Odin, but there isn't much in the old records about him. He is best known for his death, which leads directly to the Ragnarok, the world-ending twilight of the gods.

But unlike other end-of-the-world scenarios found in religious myth, Ragnarok isn't really the end. It's followed by a rebirth of the world, which emerges, along with Baldur himself, fresh and new, having cast off the troubles of the past. The myth isn't just something woven

into the fabric of Too Human, which hits store shelves Tuesday, but is emblematic of Dyack's hopes for the region's economy.

"If Too Human does what we expect it will (in the marketplace), then it can change the world for St. Catharines and Niagara," Dyack said Friday from his office at One St. Paul Street.

As a concept, Too Human is nearly a decade old, originally conceived as a game for the original PlayStation console. It never really got past the preproduction stage and was shelved as Silicon Knights moved on to other projects.

But Dyack says Too Human was never forgotten, and about four years ago the idea was resurrected as a game for Microsoft's Xbox 360.

On Tuesday, Baldur and the rest of the Too Human cast will finally be in the hands of gamers.

"I get the question a lot now: How do I feel now that the game is going to be released?" Dyack said. "And the truth is, I don't know. When you make a video game, you work so hard and so long that right now it is sort of surreal."

Too Human's development team treated the Norse myths seriously. Dyack said they went back to the original source material, ignoring later Christian interpretations, and some of his staff went so far as to learn the original Norse language in which the epics were written.

Once they had a handle on the mythology, they placed a science fiction overlay upon it. So whereas in the myths the gods were essentially magical creatures, in Too Human they are people who have been raised to the status of gods through cybernetic enhancements.

Baldur, the least enhanced of the gods, is derided by his peers as being "too human," Dyack said.

In the game, Baldur defends humanity from an onslaught of machine creatures. But to do so, he has to accept an increasing number of cybernetic enhancements, setting up the essential character conflict in the story.

"The game works on three levels," he said. "The first is just action. If you just want to play for that, you can. The second is the conflict between man and machine, which is a classic science fiction theme.

"The third asks the question what it means to be human. How much would you lose if you continue to alter yourself? How far could you go before you weren't human anymore?"

In an age of commonplace plastic surgery and scientists speculating on how to integrate digital technology with human bodies, the question seems apt. To drive the theme home, the game's trailer quotes the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who wrote: "Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one."

If that all seems a little heavy for a video game, think again. For several years, video games have featured complex stories with themes as deep as anything found on the stage or movie screen.

"When movies first arrived, they were just for the spectacle. They were short films showing firemen fighting a fire, that sort of thing," Dyack said. "But eventually the medium matured and filmmakers wanted to tackle more serious stories. Gaming is very much like that: it's a medium and an industry that is maturing."

There is a great deal riding on the success of Too Human for Silicon Knights, which employs 160 people. If the game is a hit, it will not only allow the company to grow, but will fuel Dyack's larger agenda for the city and region.

"I've said this before. I want to see a campus here in Niagara dedicated to interactive information technology," he said.

Dyack sees Niagara as suffering from a kind of inferiority complex that keeps it from reaching its full potential. The problem is compounded by the steady decline of the manufacturing sector. Video-game development and its associated industries might help build a new knowledge-based economy for the region, Dyack said.

Silicon Knights has partnered with Brock University, Niagara College, the City of St. Catharines and the Niagara Economic Development Corp. to form nGen, a project designed to foster the development of an interactive-media industry in the city.

Jeff Chesebrough, executive director of nGen, said the success of Too Human can do nothing but help the city.

"Obviously, Silicon Knights is one of our founding partners and we're very excited to be associated with them," he said.

Chesebrough said if Too Human is a hit, it will draw more people to St. Catharines to work for Silicon Knights or help establish the industry hub he and Dyack hope will form around the company.

"We have (Ontario's) biggest video-game producer in our backyard and we should take advantage of that," Chesebrough said, adding recent job postings for an nGen project have generated a great deal of interest.

In the past, Canadians coming out of school to work in the industry were recruited by American companies. There just wasn't a domestic industry.

"There is no reason why we cannot keep that talent here," he said. "Silicon Knights is carrying a lot of weight on its shoulders because Too Human will play a big part of that."